The first of two projects for the College of Architecture and Design fourth year Interior Architecture course, Furniture and Domesticity, introduced students to the world of woodworking. Students were asked to research and consider the importance and history of heirlooms, then to design and craft one of their own. Emphasis was placed on experimenting with both traditional techniques using hand tools (hand-saws, chisels, gouges) and modern powered equipment (lathes, bandsaws, tablesaws and routers).

A field trip to Jeffries Woodworks provided context on locally available wood species, and how to choose certain species for specific properties and purposes. Tennessee is known for its diversity of domestic hard and soft woods, as well as exotic options not commonly found elsewhere in the country, such as spalted and wormy Maple, Hackberry and Mulberry.

The results of the project were displayed for one day, on a long table in the atrium of the Art and Architecture building. The exhibit attracted a great deal of attention, inspiring other students to explore the college’s comprehensive woodworking resources housed in two facilities; the on-campus woodshop and off-campus Fab Lab.

Despite the long history and prevalence of traditional woodworking craft in Appalachia, these skills are not typically included in college design curricula. It is my hope that the knowledge and experience gained from hands-on craft techniques will enrich the work of future designers, as a complement to digitally focused workflows within modern academia.

Photographs by Charles Mathis.